Financial inclusion has always been at the heart of India’s economic policy and with the introduction of Video KYC across sectors, we have come one step closer to achieving this very feat. Video-based remote KYC has paved the way for underbanked and unbanked areas in an attempt to provide equal financial access to all. Financial inclusion makes it easy for SMEs, millennials, professionals, entrepreneurs and others to apply for and receive loans, credit cards, and buy insurance policies, now more than ever, with easy Video KYC verification and completion of tedious procedures in minutes.
Video KYC is especially key to tier 2 and tier 3 cities where bank branches are far and few, but essential banking services remain more imperative. Kwik.ID is designed to ensure that our Video KYC tool reaches even the farthest of rural areas with provisions for a low bandwidth mode and a guided step-by-step processes; all of which we believe bridge the gap between customers and businesses, all across India.
Since its launch, the potential of Video KYC has been immense, and with the lockdown, the market for Video KYC vendors continues to flourish. So far, people stuck indoors resorted to online payments via different avenues, but what about those who didn’t have a bank account? Going physically to the bank and submitting documents was risky because it involved close contact. Luckily for us, just prior to the lockdown, Video based KYC was introduced and adopted by different sectors for opening bank accounts, demat accounts, Forex, online wallets and more, which made business much smoother for many.
In the most recent circular issued by the IRDAI, the regulatory board also permits Video KYC for insurance companies, which proves to be a game-changing move for the sector that for so long, suffered from the lack of customers during the lockdown.
With the introduction of Video KYC for Banks and Aadhar-based KYC, lenders now have access to customer data, with their consent. As per RBI guidelines, banks need to update the KYC details periodically to maintain a record of their account holders. In addition to Video KYC processes carried out while opening an account, account holders are requested to go through a re-KYC and submit the necessary documents, albeit online.
Video KYC proves to be a boon for fin-tech companies too, because owing to the limited manual KYC centers, very few customers thought of tech finance as a viable option, as the process wasn’t streamlined online. There was a 40% drop in manual KYC as compared to digital KYC. Being entirely online, features like OCR, Facematch, Liveliness detection, Geo-tagging are of great use to fintech companies, especially start-ups who want to minimize cost. These features validate the evidence and also rectify inconsistent data, thereby eliminating discrepancies and saving time.
Slowly and steadily, Video KYC has seeped into every sector and every industry, be it finance or otherwise. Digital KYC hasn’t just digitized the process, but accelerated it, as well. The entire process from application to disbursal that would once take up to 10 days, now takes barely a few hours.
India’s powerful digital ecosystem coupled with the potential Video KYC can unleash, are key to the country’s economic progress by driving financial inclusion.